NHSBSA Producing Quality Analysis Playbook

This playbook sets out the NHSBSA’s expectations for planning and doing analysis.

It provides direction and guidance for everyone at the NHSBSA. It is especially for:

• Directors and Heads of Service to ensure appropriate governance of analysis in their areas.

• Commissioners, users, analysts and analytical assurers. This includes non-analysts and third-party suppliers.

It covers all analysis and datasets. This includes analysis and data published externally and used for internal decisions. It also includes analysis/data given to our sponsors/partners.

This will ensure quality and consistency of analysis and support well-informed decisions.

This Playbook is based on:

• Government functional standard 010: analysis

• The Aqua Book: guidance on producing quality analysis for government

• Code of Practice for Statistics

The Green Book and Magenta Book also cover analysis involving appraisal and evaluation.

Roles

Commissioner – the person requesting the analysis. This could be an internal team, external partner or sponsor such as DHSC or NHS England.

Analyst – the person planning, undertaking and documenting the analysis. This includes Data Analysts and Performance Analysts. It also includes Customer Insight Officers, Statistical Officers, Statisticians and Data Scientists.

Critical friend/analytical assurer – the person who signs off that the analysis is fit-for-purpose. This person should not be delivering the analysis. They are usually a Senior Analyst but need not always be an analyst. Ideally, they will have prior knowledge of the subject matter and/or techniques being used.